Southampton Hospital Graded 'B' in Safety Ranking Report

SOUTHAMPTON, NY - The Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit founded by employers and health-care providers, announced its spring 2016 hospital safety rankings Monday, a measure of how safe a hospital is for patients.

Of hospitals on Long Island, locally, Southampton Hospital scored a "B" in the rankings, as did Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport.

"Patient safety has always been and continues to be among the highest of priorities for the entire Southampton Hospital family including our Board of Trustees, administrators, physicians, nurses, employees and volunteers. We continuously look for ways to make Southampton Hospital the safest and most customer friendly provider of high quality health care for the communities of the South Fork," said Steven Bernstein, president of the Southampton Hospital Foundation.

Peconic Bay Medical Center, however, earned a "D."

And Stony Brook University Hospital received an "F", the only hospital on the list to earn the lowest ranking.

Hospitals were given a letter grade from A through F based on several factors. Of the 2,571 hospitals studied nationwide, 798 earned an A, 639 earned a B, 957 earned a C, 162 earned a D and 15 earned an F.

"Due to a misinterpretation of the Leapfrog survey instructions, some operational and systems measures were given ratings that do not accurately reflect our current practices. This negatively impacted our overall grade. In the clinical outcomes portion of the survey, our results have continued to improve and we are confident that we provide safe, quality care," saidMelissa Weir, director, hospital media relations, office of communications and marketing, Stony Brook University Hospital.

At the state level, New York was ranked 44th in the nation. Vermont was ranked No. 1; six hospitals in the state were ranked, and five were given an A grade. Maine, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Minnesota rounded out the top five.

State rankings were based on a percentage of state hospitals receiving an A grade.

Leapfrog looked at medical errors, accidents, injuries and infections to determine the grades. The goal was to determine a patient's risk of further injury or infection if they visited a certain hospital.

Hospitals given a B rating by Leapfrog had a 9 percent higher risk of avoidable death than A hospitals. That number jumps to 35 percent in C hospitals and 50 percent higher in D and F hospitals.

Leapfrog ranked 143 New York hospitals. Here are the grades Long Island hospitals received. (Visit the full list to learn more about individual rankings.)

A

• John T. Mather Memorial Hospital, Port Jefferson
• Huntington Hospital, Huntington
• St. Francis Hospital of Roslyn, Roslyn

B

• Eastern Long Island Hospital, Greenport
• Mercy Medical Center, Rockville Centre
• South Nassau Communities Hospital, Oceanside
• Southampton Hospital, Southampton
• St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center, Smithtown
• St. Charles Hospital, Port Jefferson
• Winthrop-University Hospital, Mineola

C

• Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center, West Islip
• Nassau University Medical Center, East Meadow
• North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset
• Long Island Jewish Medical Center, New Hyde Park
• Franklin Hospital, Valley Stream
• Glen Cove Hospital, Glen Cove
• Plainview Hospital, Plainview
• Syosset Hospital, Syosset
• St. Joseph Hospital, Bethpage

D

• Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center, Patchogue
• Southside Hospital, Bay Shore
• Peconic Bay Medical Center, Riverhead

F

• Stony Brook University Hospital, Stony Brook

Leapfrog also conducted an analysis with researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine's Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. They estimated that 206,021 avoidable deaths occur each year in U.S. hospitals.

The analysis estimates that 33,459 lives could be saved if every hospital improved their safety record to A standards. Still, the study estimates 43,903 avoidable deaths in A hospitals each year.

Leapfrog releases its rankings twice a year.

“It is time for every hospital in America to put patient safety at the top of their priority list, because tens of thousands of lives are stake,” Leapfrog President Leah Binder said in a press release. “The Hospital Safety Score alerts consumers to the dangers, but as this analysis shows, even A hospitals are not perfectly safe.”

""Peconic Bay Medical Center is transparent in sharing quality and performance information with the public. Whenever information contained in the various 'hospital report cards' identifies a potential quality issue, the public can be assured we are already aware of it and working aggressively to resolve it. We do this routinely as part of our ongoing internal operations and analysis, no matter how high or low our grades may be, so that we can provide the best patient experience possible," said Lauren Jacobsen, manager of public relations and community outreach for PMBC.

"Whether we agree or disagree with the methodology used for one report card over another, we take hospital report cards seriously and use them for their intended purpose — to improve the quality of care to our patients. Because the data is frequently from prior years, we have already identified those areas that may need improvement and implemented programs to enhance performance where it is needed. As always, we continue to work hard, pay attention to detail and be vigilant about patient safety and satisfaction," she said.

Representatives from ELIH and Stony Brook University Hospital did not immediately return requests for comments.